Meme: Eeeek!
Originator: Marti
First Seen: 4 Mar. 2011 ~ Eeeek what happened to my envelope? (sorry guys, 10k only)
Cultural Height: Probably still to be reached, given the increase of developers working for SE. Although see comments here for first signs of possible decline (2 weeks after first appearance).
Definition: SO developers like to change things, just for the heck of it. This can be shocking for users, who find their site suddenly different in some way. Cherished envelopes go missing, then cherished posts complaining about cherished envelopes going missing go missing, then posts complaining about the missing posts go missing (sometimes before they're even given time to be cherished!).
The inevitable response to this shock is a high-pitched squeal, aptly captured in the title prefix, "Eeek!" (See FAQ section for proper spelling.)
Origin: Once upon a time SE2.0 supported a site-specific notification system to find all the things that had happened to your account since the last time you logged in to that one site. It was supposedly horrid and lots of people hated it. The SEI staff removed it so they could implement a new feature. People FREAKED OUT. I'm pretty sure that when Vesuvius blew that the people took it less hard than the users on SE2.0 sites freaked out over this new change.
Since then, several other topics have been raised with similar titles and topics.
FAQ
- I'm wondering if the correct form of Eeeek! is four letters e or five.
- The number of e's in Eeeek is variable. Ideally, it should correspond to the level of eeekiness of the problem. For example, a minor CSS tweak that affects only one page of one site should warrant no more than an 'Ek', while a true bug such as the meme originator or the first signs that SO is achieving sentience can take 'Eeeek'. A longer squeal should be reserved for truly earth-shattering problems; please resist the urge for eeek-inflation.
